U-16 A League – Prunty – 11/03/17 BBSE 8-14 Faughs 1-0

Saturday saw our U-16A’s make their first appearance in this year’s camogie league, when Faughs were the visitors to the Prunty.

Our girls began at a hectic pace attacking the near goal. Katie opened the scoring with a good point before Aisling added a second, and then Erica shook the net for our first goal. Our girls continued to apply the pressure but the Faughs rearguard did their utmost to stem the flow. Hollyn then gathered possession and bore down on goal, dropped the hurl and netted with a neat hand pass. Erica then added to her tally with a point, before Hollyn gathered a pass from Katie before slotting over another point. Blathnaid was working really hard on the edge of the square and then deservedly opened her account with a point that hopped off the crossbar on its way over.

It had all been one-way traffic to this point but the Faughs forwards then showed sharpness when they found the net in a rare breakaway move.

However, our girls regrouped and kept up the impressive work rate all over the pitch. A free was dropped in by Katie and somehow found its way to the Faughs net. Katie followed this up with a sublime point from the far sideline, and then a long delivery from Hannah was collected by Hollyn, who scored a point smartly on the turn, Blathnaid then took a pass from Olivia and drove an absolute piledriver to the net.

The half-time whistle sounded and we were relatively comfortable at 4-7 to 1-0.

The second half took off where the first left off with Erica, Blathnaid and Olivia slotting over three lovely points, Aisling then found the net before a succession of points from Erica, Hollyn and Katie kept the scoreboard ticking over. Sinead then got in on the goal-scoring act, before Hollyn grabbed another brace of goals and a final point completed the scoring.

Final score 8-14 to 1-0.

This was a really good team performance, but much stiffer tests lie ahead. The back line was well led by Hannah. They will have busier matches but they did all that was asked of them on the day. Midfield worked their socks off while the forwards  could hardly be faulted on scoring rate. A special word for Anna and Lucy, who played their first competitive at this level and slotted seamlessly into the set-up.

A good start, and now we prepare for Good Counsel in two weeks’ time.

U16 Div. 4 Camogie – March 11 Ballyboden St. Endas 2-3, Faughs 4-1

Our third U16 team played their first league match of the season at  Cherryfield on Sat 11th Match. The girls have been training hard on Wednesday evenings and the weather has prevented them seeing competitive action until now. It was our first chance to mix the 2001 and 2002 girls together and after a slow first half, adjusting to new team mates and the different speed from astro to grass, we were breaking even with possession but had only one Sarah White goal to show for all our chances.

After half-time, Boden dominated the game for long periods and showed great battling qualities to continually test the excellent opposition keeper. We had great ball winning midfield with lots of opportunities coming from Lily and Beth, supported ably by the two Ciaras and Kiara. Ciara Doyle slotted a couple of points from play but we didn’t seem to be able to get the crucial extra goal to get ahead.

A late gamble by the management saw our confident keeper Sarah pushed into attack where she got a goal to narrow the deficit to one point again, but Faughs punished her absence with two scores and were flattered by a four point win.

We had great defence led by Laura, Mia and Zara with Stephanie and Jemma allowing no space to their opponents, and clearly the progress with this squad augurs well for the season ahead.

We are back on the road on March 25th and hope we’ll see more of our panel making their 2017 debut in the away game against Fingallians.

U13 report

Boden U13 Camogie girls had a great start to their U13 league campaigns. The As beat Cuala in their Division 1 clash while the B team beat Judes A team in Division 2. Finally the C team played out a draw with Raheny Bs in Division 4.

Ballyboden U13A 3-3 – 0-0 Cuala U13A

The U13A team started off their league campaign in Meadowvale against Cuala early on Sunday morning. All but one of the Boden team had been playing together the previous evening against Kilmacud with the bigger ball.

The Boden team got off to a good start showing good skills thoughout the team but on a tight pitch it was difficult to find a rhythm. Despite being camped in Cuala territory for the majority of the first half, the shots were going wide and the numbers of Cuala defenders and good goalkeeping kept the score down. The girls turned at the break with a 2 point to nil advantage after scores from Abbie and Clodagh.

The second half continued much the same as the first but with a little bit more space then the first half. The nerves were settled a little when Aine got the ball in the net to make the lead a little more solid. They had to be careful though as there were more breaks from Cuala too in the second half with the keepers long pucks on the shortened pitch putting pressure on the Boden defence. However Emma Jane, Megan Deignan and Kate Lennon stood firm with Sadie mopping up superbly. The one time the defence was breached, a great stop by Shauna kept Cuala at bay.

There were further goals from Leonie and Alice and another point from Abbie. On another day Kate Donaghy, Megan Dignam, Sarah Cooney and Shona would have had scores but it was not to be. Around the middle of the park, great winning and running with the ball from Clodagh, Sarah Gleeson, Caoimhe and Leah kept the pressure on Cuala but they had to be content with the 6 scores.

Overall a good performance by the team and but plenty to work on before the next round of League matches in April.